Sailor Planet Guardians 1 - The Invaders
by Perlune
Summary: Five teenage girls accidentally witness the last moments of a creature who has come to warn them of an imminent alien invasion. With the help of the powers he passes on to them, top gymnast Annabel Magnett tries to infiltrate the Infested and soon finds out they're in for a world of trouble...
1. Author's Note

I originally wanted to project the Sailor Moon universe into science-fiction, getting rid of the _sentai_ aspect in order to explore it from a realistic perspective. I suppose the fact that my Sailor Moon and Animorphs collections share a common bookshelf had something to do with how I came up with this story in the first place – what I can say for sure, though, is that the idea of five teenagers fighting to protect their planet from the invasion of evil forces from space sounded familiar somehow. So you could say this story is basically Animorphs' storyline in a Sailor Moon universe. Now Animorphs fans will definitely find the scenario to be virtually the same, and I want to make it clear that this is an artistic choice on my part – it's not like I lack the imagination to make up my own ideas for stories. Think of it as an exercise in style, and I hope you enjoy this unlikely cross-over.


	2. Chapter 1

My name's Annabel Magnett. That's about all you need to know about me. I won't tell you when I was born, or where I live, or what school I attend. If I do, they'll find me and my friends. And if they do, all hope is lost. They won't kill us, oh no… But I should probably get back to the beginning. I will always remember the day everything started. It was a beautiful spring day. None of us could have foreseen that we would all end up in detention. Mrs. Seymour had kind of gone mad, and her mood had just gotten worse with each passing hour – or, more specifically, with each of our blunders.

Abiona Airey had been first. She's a strong and witty girl who doesn't mince her words. She's not exactly a big-mouth – rather, she waits for the right time, like a lurking snake watching its prey, and spits her venom, often a mere few words, but sharp and accurate. She's not necessarily hostile either, but the bottom line is, you don't want to mess with Abiona Airey unless you're ready to face the shaming of a lifetime. That day, we had been studying colonialism and Mrs. Seymour had said something vaguely racist I can't quite recall – but since Abiona is black, it had really pissed her, and she had come up with a very unkind, though clever comment, not something you should say to a teacher, anyways. As far as I can remember, she had pretty much overreacted, but on the other hand, Mrs. Seymour could have tried and cool things down. Abiona had remained calm at her sentence, but you could practically feel her cold anger stir inside her.

Next had been Phoebe Burns. This slender, fashionable girl with blonde hair and clear blue eyes and a smooth, pale skin, was the popular type – quite the kind who could make the front cover of Shout Magazine. She was a proud person and would never drop an argument, especially against a boy. So when some guy had made a joke implying that the more girls care about their appearance, the less brains they have, she instantly flew off the handle and they had a heated quarrel that Mrs. Seymour found herself unable to settle. When she asked Phoebe to cut it, she would not just lay low and let the storm pass over. Instead she couldn't help but brag about how there was no way such macho words should go unpunished. All it earned her was an hour of detention, while the boy got off lightly. Phoebe had cloaked herself in her dignity, haughtily ignoring the muffled laughs around her.

From there, everything had just seemed to go down the drain. Lynn Rivers had been caught exchanging notes with her neighbor, and the sanction had been instantaneous. Though I suppose she deserved it, I couldn't help but feel bad about it because I'd always appreciated her. She was gentle and kind, you know, the girl that would always find something nice to say when you feel down. She exuded peace and harmony in every way. With her brown hair dressed in a simple ponytail and her deep, dark blue eyes, she looked neither plain nor sophisticated. Actually, while Phoebe was stylish, Lynn was merely beautiful. I couldn't imagine a single outfit or haircut or whatever feature that she would not be able to wear elegantly. Somehow, she was not only beautiful herself, but she would make anything she would touch beautiful as well.

Even the class's swot, Sophie Bloom, got detention from giving an irrelevant answer when questioned. I guess she was merely distracted, but our peeved teacher clearly felt offended with her attitude. Though that girl isn't exactly the kind of company I would keep, I also felt kind of sorry since she always works so hard. With her braided fair hair and green eyes hiding behind a pair of glasses, she just looked like the typical model student. She was often made fun of by other pupils who were supposedly jealous of how successful she was with school – besides, she was pretty plump, not to the point where it was ugly, but I think she's always had a complex about it.

And finally, I, Annabel Magnett. I had failed to show my homework for the simple reason that I hadn't done it in the first place – so I'd deserved my punishment, like Lynn had. I was never the studious type, though I usually managed to get away with it. I don't know why that was exactly. Perhaps because I was a quiet girl and there was scarcely any reasons for the teachers to hear about me – or maybe that was just Mr. Chambers, our PE teacher, who would stand up for me in the unlikely event I should run into trouble. My proficiency at gymnastics served me well for that matter. He would always tell me that I was gifted, that I should go professional and even aim for the Olympics. To be honest, I wasn't sure there was anything so exceptional about myself. I could sure see that most of my classmates had a hard time, or were otherwise plainly unable to do stuff that came naturally to me – but, that's the point, if just felt so _natural_. They would often say that I looked down on them, that how I would act so cool showed how much contempt I felt towards them – but the truth is, I didn't feel any exceptional at all. Just a regular teenager, with a teenager's mind, and a teenager's dreams, and a teenager's concerns. I guess when people think highly of someone, they expect them to brag a bit. More like Phoebe, who acts like she's a special person, because she genuinely thinks of herself as a special person. So much for trying to blend in.

Anyways, however they would speak of me, they all seemed to agree on this – I could do virtually anything with my body. And I liked it, this sensation of freedom, just knowing that no one could stop me from moving exactly the way I wished to. I loved to throw myself in the air with confidence, oblivious to the fear of getting hurt that pinned so many people down to the ground. I loved to play with gravity, just the same way others would play with a ball or with water. It was not just about pushing myself, it was like having a secret friend – a mysterious force everyone felt, but which spoke only to me. 'Watch out, Annabel, I'm going to pull you down right now. – It's okay, I'm ready for you, carry on.' My dad used to call me his 'little monkey', which he had stopped to do seeing as how some girls were getting giggles from it. But as far as I was concerned, I didn't really mind – after all, a monkey was exactly what I was. I didn't think of it as a demeaning comparison, on the contrary. Monkeys are smart and skilful, and people make fun of them whereas they can hardly do a tenth of what monkeys can. Story of my life.

So, the five of us were detained when the day was over, and there was a heavy atmosphere filled with annoyance in the classroom. Abiona seemed determined to boycott the English test Mrs. Seymour had given us, while Phoebe was muttering to herself in cold anger. Sophie was quiet but I was pretty sure that deep down she felt very ashamed to be here, undoubtedly for the first time. Only Lynn looked more or less relaxed. As for myself, I was just daydreaming, waiting for the detention to pass by, satisfied with the few answers I had written down. I knew that wouldn't be enough for Mrs. Seymour, but I was kinda hoping the other girls would give her better reasons to get angry about. Also, it seemed like she was annoyed to watch over the pupils she had detained herself. Thus, none of us was surprised when she left the classroom, saying she would be back in a few minutes.

As soon as she got away, Lynn came to sit next to me.

'Any luck with the test?', she asked with a smile.

I shrugged.

'Oh, I dropped it. What about you?'

'I'm stuck here and there... I wouldn't mind some help.'

'Why don't you ask Sophie?'

'I don't think she would approve of someone trying to cheat.'

I gave a quick glance at Sophie. She blushed and faced away.

'Plus, that might encourage you to fill in your own sheet, don't you think?'

That was very much like Lynn – always looking for win-win situations. I nodded and made some room on the table so that she could put her stuff down. We spent a few minutes working together and we were almost done when Abiona suddenly stood up and headed for the door.

'What are you doing?' Sophie called out with an anxious voice.

'I need some fresh air. I'm gonna go outside.'

Phoebe stood up as well.

'I need to talk to Mrs. Seymour. I'm going with you.'

Lynn turned to me.

'They're going to get us all in trouble. Let's get them back.'

I nodded.

'Right. I'm coming with you.'

'I'm staying here. Hey! Did you hear me?' Sophie called from behind us, and soon she was on our heels too.

We strode along the corridors, following one after another. It was pretty funny, how each of us would offer the other an excuse to ditch detention in good faith. But I think that deep down, we were starting to feel something was going wrong around here. At that point, the only thing we could notice was how empty and silent the school seemed. We passed by the teacher's lounge, only to find there was nobody there.

'Well', Abiona sighed, 'you girls do as you please, I'm definitely out of here.'

'Maybe she got back to the classroom while we were away?' Sophie suggested.

We reluctantly made our way back to the classroom. We had to get our stuff before going, anyways. But we were relieved to find our teacher hadn't come back in the meantime.

'I must still see her', Phoebe insisted. 'I'm not just running away like a burglar.'

'Suit yourself', Abiona said, waving her off.

'I'm not gonna stand for you when she learns what you did, you know that!'

'By all means don't. It would pain me to have to thank you.'

Lynn walked straight between the two girls as she felt the tension rise between them.

'Good evening, Phoebe', she called, 'and you too, Abiona.'

'Yeah, evening girls', I said, hurrying right behind her.

We left the building with these words. I was kinda expecting the girls to go back to fighting but they must have decided it wasn't worth it because they followed us a few moments later. We walked silently through the schoolyard. This is when I really started to feel oppressed. There was no sign of activity close to us. Birds weren't singing. The street in front of the school was deserted. It was like we were suddenly alone in the world.

That's when we heard a screeching noise. We turned back. And we saw it.


	3. Chapter 2

'What the hell is _that_?'

The scenery looked like it was distorted, as if it was some piece of painted paper and something was trying to pop from behind it. The air was vibrating around the phenomenon and we could feel overwhelming energy emanating from it. Suddenly, we were drowned in blinding light. We all faced away with a scream. As soon as I was able to open my eyes again, I had a hard time believing what I was seeing – a creature, the shape of a horse, with radiant, white wings, was standing in front of us.

'A Pegasus?', Sophie exclaimed in disbelief.

While none of us dared move, Phoebe carefully approached the creature, her arm extended in a friendly gesture. It lowered its head and poke her hand with its snout. Then it abruptly fell to its knees.

'It's injured!'

The five of us instantly rushed forward to support the horse-like creature.

Don't worry about me.

'Who spoke?'

We all exchanged puzzled looks.

'Did you hear that just now?', Abiona asked doubtfully.

As we all nodded, Phoebe turned to the creature.

'Can you hear us?'

Yes, I can.

I had carefully watched its lips this time and they had definitely not moved an inch. It didn't feel like it was coming from outside, anyways. More like...

'Are you speaking in our minds?', I suddenly asked.

Yes, I am.

'Oh, boy. Now _that_ is freaky.'

'Who are you? What are you doing here? Why are you injured?'

I have come to warn you.

'Warn us? About what?'

An alien force is coming to invade your planet.

'_Sorry_?!'

'Aliens? With highly advanced weapons and spacecrafts and stuff?'

No. A much more perverted kind. They do not seek to destroy you. What they want is... _you_.

'Us? What do you mean?'

They're called Shadows. They're parasites. A species which feeds on others. They infest living creatures and take control of them. Then they have their host behave exactly like before so it's impossible to tell the difference. They progressively infest whole planets undetected that way. They will make sure you remain unaware of their existence until you're all under their control.

'That's terrible!'

'But why do they want us for?'

You humans are numerous. They want you for your number. So that they can raise an invincible army and wipe out all who oppose them.

We fell silent for a while. Vile parasites from space coming to enslave all humanity – it was all so surrealistic, any of us would have laughed at it in normal circumstances. However, the circumstances were all but normal.

'But we're just a couple of teenage girls', I said meekly. 'You should speak with members of the government; There's hardly anything we can do.'

There's no time. I will give you something to fight with.

'What? Weapons?'

A special kind of weapon.

There was another burst of blinding light, though weaker than the previous one, and a small, glowing cube came out of nowhere in the front of the creature.

Come closer. Each of you, put your hand on a side of the cube.

We all did as we were instructed. The cube's surface was tepid and buzzed gently. The creature closed its eyes and I felt a little dizzy for an instant. Other than that and some itching at the tip of my fingers, I felt like nothing had change.

There.

'What did you do to us?'

I passed a piece of Pegasian technology on to the five of you. It is part of you now and no one can steal it from you.

'What technology?'

Instant genetic engineering. You can alter your genetic structure up to some point.

'Like, growing a third limb or stuff like that?'

Not necessarily to such extremities. But you can improve your metabolism in various ways and achieve feats which greatly surpass your kind's normal abilities. With experience, you will be able to manipulate increasingly complex sequences and even mimic those from other species.

'Seriously? But, how does it work? I mean, if your technology is inside our bodies, how do we command it?'

Through formulae. Your body will react to particular sets of nerve impulses which are in turn triggered by certain formulae. You will have to figure them out by yourself since I do not have the required knowledge about your species to predict how your nervous system works. What I can say for sure, though, is that meaningful formulae are necessarily unusual expression. This is a fail-safe to avoid accidental triggering of your powers.

Abiona chuckled.

'Unusual expressions we have to figure out by ourselves. Great.'

Phoebe looked daggers ar her.

'This is serious!'

Abiona stared back and shrugged. She was about to reply but her answer was cut off by a sudden, low vibration humming in the air. It was like some kind of silent aircraft slowly going down from above. We all looked up.

They're coming! Hide! the Pegasus urged us.

'But, we can't leave you here!', Sophie exclaimed.

You have to. It's too late for me anyways. They have come for me, don't let them find you too. Go!

Abiona pulled Sophie away from the creature as the rest of us hurried towards the school's gate. The humming was progressively getting louder and louder, quickly turning into a deafening noise.

'We won't make it!' Lynn shouted 'We have to hide _now_!'

'Over here!' I said, pointing at a pack of bushes which surrounded the lawn.

I jumped behind them and my classmates followed me, just in time. There was the same kind of cracking noise we had heard as the Pegasus had shown earlier, just much louder. Then, from nowhere, a huge distortion appeared in the sky, right above our school, through which a giant fortress in the shape of a dark crystal descended. The Pegasus's voice echoed in your minds.

The Shadows' Lair. A heavily defended fortress from which they conduct the invasion of your planet, and which is invisible to any of your detection systems. It bears dark crystals Shadows need to connect to regularly in order to replenish – once in about three of your days.

It came to me that it was his last moments and he was trying to give us as much intelligence as he could. Suddenly, a couple of bolts shot from the crystal's surface to the ground, summoning horrendous creatures which quickly spread out around the schoolyard. They looked like some sort of dinosaurs, except that their skin was covered with razor blades.

Saurians. A peaceful species entirely enslaved by the Shadows. They are to be pitied.

It was pretty hard to believe these killing machines were originally peaceful, to be honest. They were followed by disgusting worms with dozens of short limbs, quite like centipedes.

Myriapods. Those are cowards, allies of the Shadows which let themselves infest willingly.

As difficult as it was to picture Saurians as harmless beings, those Myriapods, on the contrary, definitely gave a straightforward impression. Judging by the Pegasus's words, they were just as disgusting deep down as they looked. The monsters were securing the perimeter when Sophie gasped and pointed at a group of people who emerged from the crystal as well.

Infested humans. Those are not people anymore. They have all fallen to Shadows and one of them is controlling their every moves.

I felt a shiver crawling down my spine. You would expect infested humans to exhibit monstrous traits, or some kind of clue as to their condition – but they looked perfectly normal, with natural movements, shouting orders and talking to each others like any humans would. Some of them even looked kind and friendly. Shadows in disguise – a disguise so perfect it was impossible to tell them apart from real humans. Even for us, who knew.

Then, a gate opened at the Lair's surface. And, to our greatest surprise, a horse-like creature with shimmering wings came out of it – another Pegasus. However, although he had pretty much the same appearance as the one who came to help us fight the Shadows, there was clearly something different about him – an evil aura, so dark you could practically feel cold and fear oozing out of him.

Variscite Three. The leader of the invasion. The only Shadow which was able to infest a Pegasian ever. He's very cunning and will stop at nothing.

The infested Pegasian landed gracefully in the middle of all his minions. He slowly approached his wounded kin and looked down at him.

So, Prince Erlan, we finally meet in person, don't we?

Hearing Variscite Three's spooky voice in our heads was like having a cockroach in our back. We exchanged anxious looks, worried that we might have been spotted.

Stay calm, the warm voice of Prince Erlan said. You can hear him only because he wants everyone to witness his triumph. As for me, I'm using private mind speech – he's not aware I'm talking to someone.

It is such an honor, the infested Pegasian continued, You have fought bravely. Unfortunately, you have lost.

I have merely lost a battle, Variscite. You have not won the war. This planet isn't yours yet.

Variscite Three's cold laughter echoed throughout the schoolyard – or so it seemed, since it was obviously all in our minds.

Conquering this planet shall be a breeze, Prince. Creatures so weak – no natural weapons, feeble bodies, all so full of themselves... And so _numerous_! A _legion_ of Shadows rampaging throughout the galaxy in these hosts, and slowly turning every living being into one of ours – can you picture that?

I don't need to – that will never happen!

Ah, that's the spirit, Prince. You see, it's what I like about your kind – always so confident about being on the rightful side. It's funny, when you think of how this war started...

Prince Erlan remained silent. His voice was growing fainter as the conversation was going on, and I knew he had little time left.

But let's go straight to the point, if you don't mind – I see you're severely injured, and I do not not want to miss the privilege of putting you to death with my own hands.

Though it was difficult to see from the distance, I noticed that the infested Pegasus's jaw was slowly coming out of place.

I worked this strand out of the Saurians' DNA, Prince. I'm sure you're going to love it.

As a Pegasian, he also possesses the genetic engineering technology. Prince Erlan explained to us.

And, as Variscite Three's maw opened wide, we could see several rows of enormous, razor-sharp fangs shine in the sunset's last beams. We watched in horror as the infested monster bit into the body of the wounded Pegasus. I don't feel like going into detail further, I guess you get the picture. I wish I hadn't stared to be honest, but I couldn't take my eyes off it. I felt like I owed it to the bravery of Prince Erlan to watch his last moments to the end. Also, I had to know how far our enemy was willing to go. And the scene I was watching was giving this question a plainly brutal answer.

Anyways, a few moments later, Prince Erlan's body had vanished.


	4. Chapter 3

We were all in shock. I don't know who started crying first. I think we all shed tears at some point, but I do remember Sophie sobbing louder than the rest of us.

'Shut up, sissy, you're gonna give us away!' Abiona scolded her.

But that was no use, she just couldn't help it, as any of us hardly could. I could swear even the tough Abiona had shiny eyes while uttering these words. A couple of Saurians were roaming close to us, and we did our best to hold our breath. I remember trembling heavily – which I didn't like at all since I was so used to controlling every last part of my body. Luckily the creatures soon walked away, and there were sighs of relief.

'We need to get out of here, fast,' Phoebe whispered. 'Why don't they go away now?'

No sooner had she spoken, that we overheard a conversation between two infested humans.

'They said we are to search the area. The Pegasian must have left something behind – some kind of cube, they said...'

We all looked down at the small glowing cube Prince Erlan had used to give us the Pegasian power, my hands tightly clenched around it.

'Throw it away,' Abiona urged me.

I shook my head.

'I can't!'

'Do it! We're never making it out of here alive otherwise!'

'I believe Annabel is right,' Lynn pondered. 'Who knows what they can do with it...'

'If a Pegasian can pass this power on to anyone using that cube, there's no way Variscite Three lays his hands on it,' Phoebe further insisted.

Abiona scowled.

'What do we _do_ then?'

We stared helplessly at the schoolyard, still crawling with monstrous aliens and Infested people. The gates were not very far away, but anyone would see us if we were to go through it, and they could easily track us down. We could hide in the building, but once again they would see us enter it and all they would need to do would be to search the entire school until they would find us. And we could not sit behind the bushes for much longer, for they were going to have a look there sooner or later. I desperately looked around, trying to focus.

_Think, Annabel. What are you strong at?_

A row of trees stood not far from us. I raised my eyes, absentmindedly gazing at their trunk and branches. One of them was so tall you could practically reach the school's roof from it. And then, it hit me.

'I know. I'm going to create a diversion,' I suddenly announced.

'A diversion? How so?'

'I'm going to lure them to the other side of the building.'

'But you can't go round it without exposing yourself!' Sophie objected, her eyes wide open. 'The only way to the other side is right through those... monsters!'

'Exactly. That's why I'm going to go _over_ it. You guys run away as soon as they're going after me.'

'This is crazy! Who could climb their way over a huge thing like that?!'

'If anyone in the school, I'd say the top gymnastics student.'

My classmates fell silent and stared at me for a while. We all knew that was risky, but on the other hand, it was our only way out. Lynn reached for my hand.

'Be careful.'

I gave a faint smile.

'I will.'

I think I managed to make that line sound convincing to the others, but deep down I must say I wasn't overconfident, to say the least. I stuffed the Pegasian cube into my backpack hastily and crawled a few feet away. I took a deep breath while waiting for the signal, trying to keep my cool, saying to myself it was just like a competition, with everyone staring at you and making your heart race – except this time, the point was for _nobody_ to see me, of course. As soon as I heard Abiona's quiet whistling, I darted to the nearest tree and hid behind it, away from the Infested. I stood there motionless for a while, carefully listening. As I decided I was clear to proceed, I looked up at the lowest branches. They were a bit high for me but I knew I should be able to catch them. I bent my knees slightly and mentally counted to three. I leaped up and grasped on to a branch. I threw my feet up to give my body momentum, and used it to pull myself up, pretty much like a bar kip. Peace of cake so far.

I quickly climbed one branch after another. I was not as perfect as I could be with uneven bars, but then again aesthetics weren't my primary concern at that time. I merely tried my best to enjoy the moment, as it felt nice to be in my element amid the crisis. Playing with my secret friend gravity ten feet over those horrendous creatures helped me feel safer, unreachable. My school uniform felt more uncomfortable than ever, though. I couldn't make movements as broad as I was used to. At some point, I even ripped my skirt.

_Oh no, mom's gonna be furious!_ a small voice in my head whined.

_Oh, for god's sake, Annabel!_ another voice answered right away. _You're in the middle of a courtyard crowded with creepy alien invaders who're looking for you and you're worried about your _uniform_?_

'Well, this allows me to move freely, anyway,' I muttered to myself.

I was soon on top of the tree, with a clear view on the courtyard – though I remained careful not to show myself. The horde of Saurians and Myriapods was spread out, still searching tirelessly. As it seemed like I had plenty of time, I made a pause and stared at the nearby tree. I was to cross the gap between the two as quietly as possible, and then once again in order to get to the highest tree, the one which would allow me to access the roof. As I was trying to figure out which branch would be the best bet to avoid being heard and seen, some shouting below caught my attention. And suddenly, my eyes widened. A group of Infested men and women were waving at the monsters and calling out for them. And they were standing dangerously close to the bushes where my classmates were hiding.

_Oh, __shit__._

I swear I'm usually a polite girl and you could scarcely hear me cursing, if anytime at all. However, at that very moment, the foul word just came straight to my mind. Just imagine how distressed I must have felt for this to happen. After all, it was a matter of life and death – quite literally.

The adrenaline rush through my veins just reminded me of the familiar sensation I experienced right before performing in competition. My mind went blank, I temporarily set aside my fear and stress, focusing on my jump, mentally rehearsing the sequences of movements just one last time, as I would do with any ordinary gymnastics routines. My limbs stopped shaking, my heart went steady, through inexorably fast, and I knew I was in full control of my body again. And so, I threw myself in the air.

_Here I am, gravity. Time to play seriously now._

Since the plan wasn't for me to go unnoticed anymore, I went all-out, moving as fast as I could, grabbing one branch after another, even letting out groans here and there. Looking back at it, I can hardly believe how well I was able to adapt to the uneven shapes and sizes of those natural bars. I remember getting this funny thought, that the monkey nickname seemed to fit me even better than I knew, after all.

No sooner had I started to move, that a huge commotion arose down below. Infested people started to shout orders, sending the monsters at me. I could hear Variscite Three's bloodcurdling mental voice echoing in my head: Bring them to me _alive_!'

I couldn't help but getting goosebumps at those words. Seeing as how he had ended Prince Erlan's life, getting sliced up by a bunch of Saurians just sounded like a much preferable fate than to be brought to him alive. Fortunately, I was holding tight and didn't lose my balance – plus I was already close to the top of the tallest tree. Then I caught a glimpse of a pack of Saurians trying to go after me and my heart stopped. I had expected those heavily armed creatures to hop helplessly around the trees as they would realize they were stuck to the ground – well, they turned out to be pretty amazing climbers instead. Before I knew it, there were horrendous maws gnawing at me just a few inches away from my legs, and all I could think of was to kick at one of them to take an impulse. I quickly turned back to the starry sky and reached clumsily to the highest branches. Fear had just caught on relentlessly.

When all seemed lost, a slight ray of hope shone as my hand finally reached the rough surface of the building's roof. I grasped it with all my strength and pulled as hard as I could.

_Come on!_

At that point, I believe that I have a Saurian to thank for pushing me up and giving me enough momentum, so that I was able to rush forward and roll onto the school's roof. I quickly jumped to my feet and dashed breathlessly. Unfortunately, assuming I was able to rival with Saurians at climbing at all, they would totally outmatch me at dashing, and I could soon feel my chasers' heavy breath on my neck. I was also able to hear their claws and blades hissing through the air, closer and closer to my body. Soon, there was a tearing sound, and my back felt lighter all of a sudden. They had ripped my backpack's straps apart. A heap of strangely cold-blooded thoughts suddenly started to pour in my mind.

_They can't get my stuff. There's my name written on it, everywhere. They will know who I am. If I let them get it, I'm as good as dead. I have to get it back._

I suddenly went through a series of gymnastics moves. To be able to turn back smoothly. To surprise the enemy. And also, to raise my spirits a bit. I tried to remind myself that they would do their best to keep me alive anyways – I had just met Variscite Three, but I could already tell that's not the kind of boss whose orders you'd want to mess up with. So I stood tall in front of the monsters and glared at them. They stopped and glared back. I clenched my teeth.

'Hey, you!' I shouted at the creature who held my backpack tight between its razor-sharp claws. 'Give that back, at once!'

The Saurian growled and showed its numerous, shining teeth. Apparently, it couldn't understand what I was saying. I immediately saw this as an opportunity to snatch my stuff and make a run for it before it has a chance to react. The creature raised its monstrous claws and prepared to attack. I barely had time to dodge the blow, jumping forward on my hands. From there I could simply have grabbed my backpack and run away, but for some reason it seemed to me like it was a good time to kick the Saurian in the face before leaving. The creature screamed and thrashed about, knocking me away. It was incredibly strong. I did not land just a few feet away like I would have expected to – but rather, I flew through the air. Pretty far from the monsters. Far enough, actually, to go past the edge of the roof. I stared at the open space below in horror, realizing no gymnastics move, however brilliant, could help me out that, this time.

I was just hoping the others had been able to escape.


	5. Chapter 4

The recollection I have of the following events is a bit hazy. I'm not sure exactly how much happened and how much didn't. I'm not even sure I really experienced everything I'm going to talk about, and not just imagined later, thinking back of it.

I remember falling off all right. However, I was no longer falling from the school building's roof. I was in space. In the Earth's orbit, to be precise. Not far from myself, I could see an entire armada of spacecrafts battling fiercely around the Shadows' Lair, the fortress which had landed in the schoolyard earlier. What looked like the Pegasian ships were being torn apart one after one, and by the time I entered the atmosphere of Earth, there was scarcely any of them left. I felt attracted by the planet more and more. Yes, I was undoubtedly falling, and I would crash thousands of miles below.

Don't give up, Annabel. You can't let the Shadows put you down so easily.

I was startled at Prince Erlan's voice, and even more so as I saw him flying peacefully in circles around me.

B-But! my mind spoke for itself. How can you be here? You – I mean, you're dead, right?

Well, not entirely, Annabel. A part of myself still lives through you and your friends.

Or, I'm just dreaming my last moments away.

What difference does it make in the end? The fact that you're dreaming proves you're still alive. And as long as you're still alive, hope remains, doesn't it?

I'm afraid there's not much I can do to work out this situation, Prince...

That's the reason why I'm here. To provide you with advice.

Then you'd better provide that advice quick, Prince.

Fly, Annabel.

I felt even more helpless than I had a few moments ago.

But I can't fly, Prince!

Sure you can. Give it a try.

What with? I don't have wings like you do!

Yes, you do. You're part Pegasian, now, remember?

But I-

The Prince suddenly soared into the air – or more precisely, he stopped falling alongside me.

Fly, Annabel. Fly or die.

I can't!

Yes, you can. Your mind is strong. I believe in you.

I figured I might as well stop trying to convince myself there was nothing I could do, and take advantage of the few remaining moments to focus. What had Prince Erlan's told us in the courtyard? Genetic engineering... Powers... Formulae. A formula. A formula what was I needed. But I barely had a few seconds on my hands to try like billions of combinations of words before I could possibly hit a single result. What in the virtually endless human lexicon was I supposed to say to trigger any powers relevant to my current situation?

I tried to remember further. Meaningful sentences. Yes, that's what Prince Erlan had told us. The formulae had to be meaningful. I was looking for something that had some kind of sense. But unusual. Yes, he'd said that, too. An unusual, meaningful sentence. I looked around, desperately searching for an answer in my imaginary surroundings. Strangely enough, though I was already deep inside the atmosphere of the Earth, and closer to the ground than ever, I could clearly make out the shape of a planet in the heavens. A gray, rocky planet, with lots of craters in its surface, just like the Moon. But it wasn't the Moon. I remembered how a classmate of mine had mistaken it for the Moon during our last astronomy lesson.

Then, it dawned on me. It all seemed so obvious all of a sudden. It was like a riddle written in the stars. Yes, it had to be that. Since I was on the verge of being crushed on the ground like an insect, I had nothing to lose anyways.

It felt strange. I experienced the physical sensation of air blowing through my throat as I uttered the formula, but at the same time the voice I heard seemed distant, powerful, like it was echoing from the depths of space. And as I was about to hit the surface of the Earth, I could hear myself shouting:

'MERCURY POWER, MAKE-UP!'

Then silence.

It felt like an eternity until I finally came back to my senses. I tried to move around. I was on the ground. My face was down to the ground. I could move. No pain. No sensation of being broken, or torn apart. I was healthy.

I quickly got up and looked around. Only then did I truly realize that something was different with me. Knowing what was going to come next, I'd be able to explain it better to you now, but at that point it was just a fuzzy sensation. I was not just feeling okay – I was feeling _great_, actually! A tiny whistling in my ear caught my attention and I looked up, at the edge of the roof. A Saurian was standing there, and I could see him clearly, so very clearly – it was incredibly how I could tell every last detail about the cracks in its skins, the shape of its teeth, or the complex coloring of its eyes, even though it stood six stories above. I faced away and ran. Well, ran, strictly speaking. Because it didn't feel like running at all. More like – teleporting forward! I don't know how to put it any better. I was there before I could even see where I was going. My brain was racing, it would work on its own accord, and my body felt strong, so incredibly strong. Oddly enough the Saurians which were chasing me weren't able to keep up anymore.

At some point I ran into a dead-end and my conscious self rang the alarm. But my body wouldn't listen, and instead of stopping, it jumped forward. I soared in the air, pretty much like when the mad Saurian had tossed me away, except that I was doing so on my own strength this time. My hand grabbed the roof of a nearby house, and I flew past it, just like I had hopped over a low wall. It felt like gymnastics, like when I had this sensation of full control, that nothing could stop me. But that – that was just – I can't even find the words. At that point it wasn't even playing with gravity, it wasn't even fun anymore. It was like finding out that you can sprint when all you've done your entire life is crawl.

Anyways, I eventually found my way home, somehow – after losing all of my pursuers countless times, despite their amazing physical abilities. My conscious self hinted against walking through the front door like that, and my body wasn't in the mood for embarrassing itself with doors anyways, so I leaped right through my bedroom's open window. I don't know if it was the fact that I finally stopped, or the sight of my familiar, safe environment, or both – but I suddenly felt exhausted and heavy and my shaking limbs weren't able to support my weight anymore. I barely caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror before collapsing. And I kept seeing this picture in the dreamy state I went into – the picture of a heavenly Annabel, with silvery hair, shiny eyes, crystal fingernails, gorgeous jewelry, and exuding with an overwhelming powerful aura. I could even swear there was a hint of radiant Pegasus-like wings in the background.

I woke up with a severe headache the next morning. I hadn't exactly been sleeping straight through the night from the time I had been back, because my mom had found me in the meantime and yelled at me like crazy – just like I knew she would. I couldn't care less at the moment, I was so exhausted I actually had a hard time just to understand what she was saying. I think the sight of my school uniform ripped apart and her daughter completely stoned made her way more worried than angry and she helped me out of my damaged clothes and let me go to sleep without asking for further explanation. I just had enough composure to take the Pegasian cube out of my school bag and stash it under my pillow.

So, when I woke up, everything seemed to have gone back to normal. Birds chirping outside, music on the radio, Mom cooking breakfast, Dad reading the newspaper. Getting dressed, packing my stuff ready for school. Aside from my ruined uniform and backpack – and the cube, of course – there was virtually no trace of the previous day's horrors, and I was starting to wonder whether I had simply gone crazy and was being completely delusional with how all of it supposedly happened. Fortunately my older sister Ellen had a spare uniform and I would be able to wear it until we bought a new one. It didn't look very good on me though because Ellen was much taller than me. When I showed up for breakfast, she started teasing me:

'Wow, Anna, been putting yourself into the washing machine, have you?'

'Wouldn't hurt for you to spend some time in it, anyways,' I fired back.

Ellen and I had always been very close to each other. Recently, though, she had become quite distant and I never knew why.

'Less talking and more eating up!' Mom urged us. 'Anyways, Ellen, how's it going with that new club of yours?' she casually asked, as to avoid talking about me, I suppose.

'The Sharing? Oh, mom, it's great, I promise! Much better than hanging around with those losers from the swimming club...'

Ellen was great at swimming and had been an inspiring figure for students my age at our school's club – which is actually how I got to know Lynn better, since she's in too. But as soon as she'd heard from that Sharing thing, she'd suddenly quit swimming with no further explanation. I had no idea what they would do in that club exactly, but I couldn't help but resent them for stealing my sister away from me.

I quickly ate up my plate with an unusual appetite everyone noticed – but no one dared to bring it up. Mom told be she would be coming with me to see the principal – and I knew better than to argue with her on that matter. So she gave us a ride. She went ahead of us, and before leaving me at the school's gate, Ellen grabbed my arm.

'Hey, sis?'

'Yeah, what is it?' I said, startled.

'Listen, I know the two of us haven't been as close as we use to be lately... Stuff going on in my life, people to see, exciting things to do, y'know!' She giggled. 'Anyways,' she said in a more serious tone, 'I don't know what happened yesterday, but – if you wanna talk about it, I'm there, right?'

Her touch was reassuring. At the sight of her beaming face, with that confident smile of hers I'd always envied, and those sweet words she was having, I must say I was extremely tempted to tell her everything, right there, just like that. But instead, I gave an awkward smile.

'Thank you, Ellen. I won't forget that.'

'Cool,' she grinned, rubbing my arm tenderly. 'And, oh, you should try and come over to the Sharing someday, y'know? Have a lil' fun... hang out together like in the old days, huh?'

'All right,' I coyly replied, waving her goodbye.

I entered the school's courtyard. Everything seemed perfectly normal, and it was hard to believe that monstrous aliens had made an appearance there and chased a schoolgirl over the roof less than twenty-four hours ago. Phoebe was hanging with her usual gang of stylish girls and gave me an odd look as I smiled at her. Abiona seemed as scary as ever so I did not dare approach her. And as far as Sophie was concerned, she was quietly enjoying a book, as if nothing had happened. I was seriously starting to doubt my sanity, and going straight to Sophie to question her, I unexpectedly stumbled on Lynn.

'Hey, Annabel! Good to see you! So what about that English paper we worked on together?'

With a gentle, but firm hand on my shoulder, she dragged me away from the others. It was unusual behaviour on her part, so something was definitely up. It didn't help me to relax a bit.

'Lynn? What's going on?' I asked quietly.

'Quit that serious look and smile and giggle,' she said, immediately putting her own advice in practice.

I managed to feign some carefreeness.

'Nice, now that's much better! We just don't want to attract attention, now do we?' Lynn laughed, just like she had made a good joke.

'Yeah, you're right... So what about the others?'

'Well, just as I said... It would seem very suspicious if the five of us suddenly started to hang out together overnight, wouldn't it?'

'Yeah, I suppose so...'

Deep down I knew she was absolutely right, and I felt a bit stupid not to have thought of that by myself. Lynn looked around and hushed her voice a bit.

'Sophie lives in a farm, away from town. We reckoned it might be safer to talk there after classes – are you in?'

I nodded quickly. Lynn smiled. The bell rang and we hurried to our classroom. I already knew the answer to that question by now, but I still felt like I had to ask.

'So – did that all actually happen?'

Lynn gave me a bright smile and giggled, still faking gossip girls.

'Every last part of it.'


	6. Chapter 5

'Finally _free_!' Phoebe called as Sophie led us into the barn.

All of us sighed in agreement. To any random listeners, this would seem like a casual way for a schoolgirl to express her relief after finishing classes, but the five of us knew there was a lot more to it – it actually meant we were free to _talk_. Abiona sat down on a crate and stared straight at me.

'Come on, tell us everything.'

Seeing as I looked embarrassed all of a sudden, Lynn came to my rescue.

'Easy, now!' she gently scolded. 'We've barely just arrived!'

'Sorry. Got carried away.'

'Of course we're all curious to hear Annabel's story – but on the other hand, I'm pretty sure she's curious about ours as well.'

I nodded.

'Well nothing much to tell,' Abiona offered. 'We basically waited for you to drag everyone out of the courtyard and got away safely.'

'Weren't you followed?'

'Actually that's quite the short version of it – some of them did go after us.' Phoebe pointed out.

'We split up and lost them eventually.' Lynn explained.

'They quit too easily to my taste. Looks like they were much more interested in you. That's why I'm so eager to hear what you have to say.'

Abiona gave me quite an intense stare. I wasn't at ease, but on the other hand she was right – I actually had something interesting to share. So I told them everything I remembered, in the best way I could.

'I can't believe you did it!' a fascinated Sophie exclaimed.

'It pretty much did itself, actually.'

'_Mercury Power, Make-Up?_' Abiona chuckled. 'Seriously?'

'Yeah, I know... I haven't given it another try yet-'

'Well, you'd better start practicing a lot, because you're the only one who's got it so far – should we run into any trouble you're the only one who can save the day!'

'Let's not get all worked up about those powers just yet – I've barely awakened them anyways.'

'Yeah, but you actually have, and real quick too!'

'I believe that's just because my life was threatened.'

I had a chill run through my spine as I recalled Prince Erlan's words from my dream – fly, or die. Had I actually flown?

'Oh yeah, I get it,' Abiona sneered. 'So, wanna try and shoot me down with daddy's rifle, anyone?'

'This is _not_ funny,' Phoebe scowled.

'Come on, relax, princess. Poor taste humor might very well be our only remaining luxury soon.'

'There was so much pressure involved,' I insisted, ignoring the two of them. 'With the Pegasian cube to protect and all-'

Sophie suddenly gasped.

'The cube! Where is it?'

'Err – I stashed it into my secret box. Couldn't quite think of a better place in the rush...'

'Bring it here,' Sophie urged me. 'It'll be safe – we could lock it up in a special box and bury it, like, some place known only to the five of us. This way, no one can possibly find it.'

We all nodded enthusiastically.

'Good thinking,' I praised Sophie, genuinely impressed.

'Umm – thanks,' she said with a blush. 'Been reading a lot, you know – _The Treasure Island_.'

'Just hope your mom or sister aren't snooping around your room as we speak,' Abiona thoughtfully observed.

'Oh, they wouldn't, don't worry about that.'

'They wouldn't, in their right state of mind...'

'What are you trying to imply?'

'As far as we know, those Shadows can infest anyone. Anyone can be the enemy.'

'But not our own family!' Phoebe exclaimed. 'I mean – we would _know_, right?'

I realized how futile her words were just as she spoke. The bitter truth slapped me in the face and I couldn't help but shake my head.

'No – no, we wouldn't. As much as I hate to admit it, Abiona's right. Who could've told the Infested people we saw yesterday apart from normal people? They're monsters in a perfect disguise. And they can be anyone. _Even_ our own family. We cannot take any chances.'

We fell silent and reflected on the extent of that tough realization for a while. Then Lynn extended her arm in the middle of our small group.

'We should make a pact out of it. Let's swear that there will be no talking of Shadows or Infested people or Saurians or Myriapods whatsoever, unless it's among the five of us-'

'- or Prince Erlan and the Pegasian cube-' Sophie pointed out.

'- or Pegasian technology and our super-powers-' Phoebe added.

'- even to our own beloved and trusted ones-' I insisted.

'- until we see it all to the end.' Abiona solemnly concluded.

As each of us spoke, we would extend our arm too, and join our hand with that of the others, just like we'd done when getting instant genetic engineering from Prince Erlan through the Pegasian cube. This was an intense moment – we all exchanged serious looks and nodded to each other before parting. That was the first time I told myself that we could make quite an awesome team after all.

'So, I guess I should go get the cube right away, shouldn't I?'

'It's already late,' Sophie shrugged, 'Maybe this can wait until tomorrow.'

'Unless you can transform into Super Annabel and get all the way to your place and back faster than the bus would,' Abiona challenged.

'I'm not even sure I can do it again, you know.'

'Why don't you give it a try?'

I bit my lip, pondering whether this was a good idea at all. I didn't want to look stupid in front of the other girls. On the other hand, I would have to try out the Pegasian technology again sooner or later, and it seemed like the perfect place to practice – plus, I was really curious and excited at the idea of transforming a second time. So I raised my arm above my head, and yelled '_Mercury Power, Make-Up_!' and waited for something to happen. My four schoolmates were staring intensely, looking for the slightest change to occur. But as seconds were flying by, I still couldn't feel anything.

'It doesn't work,' I said in embarrassment.

'Perhaps you should try harder,' Phoebe suggested, 'You've done it once, you can do it again.'

'Don't push yourself,' Lynn recommended, 'Let it come to you.'

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I tried to remember how it felt to fall down the school's roof, to reconnect with that sensation of losing my grip. I pictured Prince Erlan flying around me in the emptiness of space, repeating his relentless word of advice over and over – fly or die. I recalled the planet Mercury showing through the clouds as I was swimming in the endless sky. At some point it even felt like my feet weren't on the ground anymore. It was weird, because my sharp sense of balance wouldn't report anything unusual. And yet, my legs strangely felt relieved of my weight.

The girls suddenly started to gasp and to call my name, disturbing my concentration. I knew something was happening but I didn't feel quite ready to open my eyes yet – I had come this far, I knew I was on the right track. Then curiosity took over and made me look at what was going on – and my jaw dropped in utter surprise. All around me, objects, people, everything was floating a few feet above the ground, as if weightless. Of course, _everything_ included my startled classmates, with their eyes wide opened, and expressions of mixed amazement and fear on their faces – and myself, too. It all took me by surprise so much that I completely lost it and we instantly all fell to the ground. I was the only one who kept control and landed on my feet.

'Guys!' I exclaimed, my heart pounding in excitement, 'I think I know how I fell off the school's roof unharmed – I think I can _bend gravity_!'

Abiona sneered at me while massaging her bruised shoulder.

'You don't say!'


	7. Chapter 6

I woke up, all sweaty and sticky. Fifth time that night. Recollections of what had happened two days earlier were haunting my sleep. I rubbed my face with a heavy sigh. Those nightmares were really starting to get on my nerves. I stared blankly at the ceiling for a while. Then I grabbed my cell phone and turned it on. There was a message from Phoebe, asking whether any of us was still awake. I was about to reply but it had been sent one hour and a half earlier already. I didn't want to risk waking her up if she had finally found a peaceful sleep.

I sat up and looked around. All was silent in the house. I stood up and stared at the street through my window. And suddenly I opened it. If I was going to have a sleepless night, I might as well make it worthwhile. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and muttered the formula, 'Mercury Power, Make-Up!'. Once, twice, and then over and over again. I was definitely transforming again that night. I had to find how I could do that in the first place. I had to be in control, just like I was on the uneven bars. I tried my best to focus, to discard the sound of the crickets and the chilly wind blowing on my face and the clouds occasionally concealing the waning moon from my mind – but after ten, perhaps fifteen minutes of concentration, I had to admit defeat.

I punched my pillow. Prince Erlan had told us our powers were triggered by specific formulae – but what if said formulae wouldn't do anything? And still, it had done something earlier that day. I couldn't transform but I had controlled gravity. For just a very short period of time, but it had definitely worked. So what? Obviously, there was a difference between my current approach, and what I had been trying to do in Sophie's barn, but I just couldn't nail it. On the first time, my life was in danger – and as Abiona had pointed out, if we were unable to find a safer method, it would make for hazardous training.

But I had no better idea at that time.

I pulled myself up onto the window's ledge and brought my toes on the brink of it. I stared down. I was just on the first floor, and though I could get harmed if I did jump, I also knew how to handle it so I could minimize the damage, down to some mere bruising. It just made it so that I wasn't feeling endangered at all. I was not going to jump if I could help it, but I wasn't afraid of the possibility either. I was too much of a monkey to be afraid of heights.

Then I heard hisses above my head. Cats fighting on the roof – great for concentration. And suddenly, either adversary dropped right on me, madly scratching at my face and hair. I tried to ward it off, but its sudden attack threw me off balance. Despite our long-term friendship, gravity was claiming my body while it was unprepared for her. This was going to hurt.

Some part of my brain still had the wit to call out the formula.

'_MERCURY POWER, MAKE-UP!_'

I landed on all four. I stared at the cat in utter surprise, realizing that my body had somehow found the same instinct as it. Also, I felt this overwhelming power flowing through me, like I had just awoken from a lifetime slumber. I took a look at my hands. My fingernails were silvery and shiny, pretty much like small blades of energy. I waved them at the cat and it instantly fled. I jumped after it. Turned out I was quite as fast. It ran off even more wildly, probably wondering what kind of a monster was chasing it. But I just couldn't help it. This sense of absolute freedom, to feel how strong and nimble I had grown in the blink of an eye – I just couldn't resist the urge to test it to the limit. How high could I jump to go after the cat? Well, two storeys. How fast was I able to run? At full speed, I would blow the cat's record, which I later got to know was about 30 mph. How many backflips was I able to chain up in a single leap? Three to five, depending on how hard I would try. And I was pretty sure I would be able to do even more with training.

I eventually decided to settle down in order to catch my breath. Yes, I was out of breath, but that was after deploying more effort than humanly possible in the first place, and I suspect it was more about the excitement than the effort anyway. I saw a train in the distance. I was able to see it in thorough detail, even though it was maybe a mile away. My hearing was incredibly sharp too. The Pegasian genetic engineering would enhance not only our performances, but also our senses. No wonder I would feel exhausted after spending a while in this state.

The train was traveling north, in the direction of Sophie's. This gave me an idea. I ran home to get the cube, and hurried towards the farm. Since I could move as fast as the bus, I would bring the Pegasian artifact to safety right away, as Abiona had suggested. I rushed through the town, running at an insane speed along the desert streets, jumping over the parked cars, leaping from one roof to another. When I think back of it, I have to admit, this was a rather careless thing to do, but I just couldn't help it. Fortunately, Shadows seemed to be sleeping tight that night, and no one saw me.

It took me only about fifteen minutes to get to the Bloom farm. There was a faint glow coming out of Sophie's window. She had to be still awake, just like me. I leaped silently onto the house's roof – which was like piece of cake at this point – and gently extended my arm to the window in order to knock at it. But before my hand had a chance to come in contact with the glass, a terrified shriek came from the inside.

Sophie! Calm down, for God's sake! It's me, Annabel!

There was a moment of silence. Then, light went on in Sophie's room. With my hearing enhanced, I was able to make out her mom's voice, asking what was going on. Sophie decided to go for the classical excuse of nightmares and all went dark and silent one again. A few moments later, the window opened quietly. I nimbly came inside and stood before my classmate, who was staring with eyes wide open.

'Annabel?' she mumbled. 'Y-y-you're-'

What?

'You look so… _different_!'

She grabbed her phone and turned on the camera. She took a few pictures, and then started recording a video. She led me to the mirror, and I was finally able to see my transformed self properly – not like the quick glance I had been able to take a few days earlier.

And, how right she was.

I could barely recognize myself. My hair was shiny silver, like metal, and I was wearing some sort of ballet dress – no, rather, a kind of sailor uniform. And I was _glowing_. My eyes, my temples, my fingernails, every last part of me seemed to be glowing, just like my normal self was an idle computer that had suddenly been turned on. I wasn't sure I had what it would take to be a super-heroin, but if anything, the looks were already perfect.

'You're buzzing,' Sophie noticed when she came closer to me. 'It's like you're… filled with electricity or something…'

That's about how I feel, to be honest.

'How do you do that?'

Do what?

I frowned at Sophie in bewilderment. I really had no idea what she was talking about.

'The mind speech. You're doing it- just like Prince Erlan did.'

Am I?

I realized she was right at the same time I was asking. I had been using mind speech all along, without even thinking about it. My lips had not moved an inch.

I don't know. It's just come to me naturally. I hope no one apart from you can hear me-

'I don't think so,' Sophie immediately said in a reassuring tone, 'Prince Erlan said he could talk to us privately. If you can use mind speech as naturally as you do, I suppose only the intended people can hear you too.'

I brought the cube, I suddenly remembered.

'Good, I'll take care of it early tomorrow.'

I suddenly felt terribly weak. My legs dropped and Sophie caught me right in time.

'Are you okay?'

'Y… Yes… don't worry… about me...'

Those were my first spoken words. And also my last.


	8. Chapter 7

'Annabel? Annabel!'

'Wh-What? Where am I?'

I sat up all of a sudden as I realized what had happened – I'd blacked out right in the middle of Sophie's bedroom, and slept through the rest of the night till morning.

'Oh m-m-my God!' I stuttered in panic, 'This can't be happening! Why didn't you wake me up earlier?'

'You needed some rest!' Sophie retorted with a worried look on her face.

'Still… Oh no, my parents are gonna kill me!'

No sooner had I spoken, that Sophie's mom called for her from downstairs.

'Don't worry, I'll handle it. Here are some clothes for you, and a bag with spare stuff you can use at school for today. Oh, and a few snacks for you to eat on your way.'

I stared at Sophie in utter surprise.

'You've- prepared everything?'

'Of course I have! You didn't think I would just let you leave on your own like that, did you?'

_I should probably not answer that._

'Wow, Soph, thanks, I- I owe you one.'

She giggled while giving me a friendly pat.

'Don't be ridiculous… Now, go! I'll catch up later at the bus stop. And don't forget to call your parents before they get head over heels!'

I nodded and quickly dressed up. Then I grabbed the bag and left through the window. It felt awfully tedious and clumsy without my super-powers.

I slowly walked to the bus stop while gobbling all the food Sophie had packed up for me. Only when I had finished it all did I realize how hungry I still was. I left a message on my home's answerphone, saying I absolutely had to get up early to get a book from a friend or something – good thing no one would pick up my call. Sophie joined me about twenty minutes later.

'Hey, morning! What's up?' she said, feigning surprise.

'Nothing much. The night was short.'

We gossiped and giggled like the regular teenage girls we were supposed to be. Once we were at school, we carefully avoided the others as we had previously decided. I itched to tell them about my experiments with the Pegasian powers, but I knew I had to wait all day.

I was sitting at my desk, daydreaming about the previous night, when Mr. Fletcher, our school's principal, came in. 'Attention, class!' he called, and we all stood up. He invited a young woman in.

'Students, let me introduce you to Ms. Lawson, your new teacher. She's going to replace Ms. Seymour, who happens to be ill for the next few weeks. I expect you to welcome her and do your best to help her feel comfortable in our school.'

Fletcher left, and our new teacher let us sit down with a broad smile. There were mumblings among the class.

'Ms. Seymour, ill?' a boy behind me whispered. 'I heard rumors she's been missing!'

I exchanged a concerned look with Sophie. Our teacher getting ill all of a sudden and replaced so quickly sounded suspicious – and even more so when you knew what had happened just a few days earlier.

Ms. Lawson hushed up the class and began her lecture. That morning felt like the longest ever. I had grown so impatient that I practically rushed out of the classroom when the bell rang. I texted the others to arrange a meeting in the cafeteria. I knew we had agreed not to stay together in public, but it seemed like urgent enough a matter to discuss. We got there separately and managed to sit in a corner, away from prying eyes.

'So, what do you think?'

'Ms. Seymour going missing after possibly witnessing the landing of the Shadows' Lair?' Abiona taunted me. 'Honestly, I wonder.'

'Poor Ms. Seymour,' Lynn sighed.

'You never liked her anyway.'

'Right – but I like that Lawson even less.'

'This persistent smile, like she was a robot!' Phoebe exclaimed with disdain. 'Sends shivers through my spine just to think about it!'

'But we can't let Ms. Seymour down,' Sophie observed, 'we have to find out what's happened!'

Abiona chuckled:

'Big words! We don't _have_ to do anything!'

'Yes we do! She's our teacher!'

'So what? Aren't students supposed to be happy when teachers are missing?'

'It's not about her being out teacher,' I said while shaking my head, 'but if they can take her, how long before they take our friends? And our family? And ourselves?'

'This girl has a point there,' Abiona mused after a moment of silence.

'So what do we do?'

'We should break into the principal's office.'

That was Sophie speaking. We all turned to her in surprise.

'What? It's the only logical thing to do. If there's any info about Ms. Seymour's disappearance, it has to be there.'

'Easier said than done,' Lynn retorted, 'even though I agree with you – but you don't just walk into the principal's office like that.'

'That's right, we're gonna need backup. Maybe a diversion, too,' I reflected.

We all stared at each other, trying to figure who was going to play safe and who was going to take the chances.

'I'm all about this plan!' Phoebe suddenly exclaimed. 'What are we waiting for?'

'Principal Fletcher? Please, come, it's urgent!' Lynn was begging at his door.

Fletcher soon burst out and she urged him to come along. The idea was simple – Sophie was to fake a crisis of whatever grave condition to keep the principal busy, while Phoebe and I were going in. Abiona would keep watch from a distance and ring my phone to warn us when he would return.

We waited for Lynn to drag the principal out of the building and hurried to his office. Phoebe carefully closed the door behind us and looked around.

'So, what are we looking for?'

'I dunno, some kind of paperwork – a file, maybe…'

'Alright, I'm taking the folders, you look into the computer.'

I nodded and quickly sat down while my partner in crime was checking the drawers. The desktop was a real mess and I couldn't find anything that looked promising in there. I decided to try a different strategy and ordered a search by date to get a list of the most recent files. Hundreds of results popped up – fortunately, I immediately spotted a cluster of videos that dated back to the night of the Lair's appearance.

'Would you look at that-'

'Found anything?' Phoebe asked eagerly.

'Yeah, seems like footages of the other night. Hopefully we can find something useful on them…'

We watched a few minutes of Saurians and Myriapods running about in the courtyard – nothing of value in there. Then a new sequence opened and it instantly froze my blood. It pictured a blurry body falling off a building.

And a crystal clear recording of me shouting '_MERCURY POWER, MAKE-UP!_'.


	9. Chapter 8

I sat there, startled and trembling, for a few moments. Phoebe grabbed the mouse and tried to erase the files, but the computer denied her request, asking for a password.

'Oh, come on, you piece of junk!'

I was desperate. I was already picturing how they would take me to the Lair and infest me with a Shadow – and then they would find the others and do the same to them. We were doomed. Mankind was doomed. All because of a stupid recording on a computer.

'There's gotta be some way we can trash this!' Phoebe blurted, 'Seriously! Do we really need to tear that computer apart?!'

'It's no use. They can still get the disks and plug them to a new one.'

'So you're just gonna sit there waiting for Fletcher to come and get you? Come on!'

'What else am I supposed to do?'

'I don't know! Anything! Just don't give up like that!'

I clenched my fist around my cell phone. I couldn't think of anything to say. Of course, I knew that Phoebe was right, from an objective point of view – but it made me feel so humiliated, to think that we were checkmate even before starting to play.

'I can't believe you, Annabel! You-'

'Sssh!'

I suddenly waved at Phoebe to hush her up. Voices could be heard in the corridor. And they were getting louder. I quickly took my phone out and tapped the screen to check for calls.

'Anything?' Phoebe nervously asked.

'No, i-i-it's off.'

'_What?!_'

Phoebe swiftly rushed to the only other door in the office, dragging me along. We got away just in time, right before someone came in. We were in some sort of narrow closet, with shelves all around and countless folders sitting on them. I leaned against the wall next to the door, breathing heavily, while Phoebe was taking a look through the keyhole.

'Fletcher,' she whispered.

I gave an uneasy nod.

'What's going on?'

I had a hell of a job uttering:

'Claustrophobia.'

Phoebe rolled her eyes, but refrained from commenting further.

'I assure you,' Fletcher was pleading. 'We got things right under control.'

'I'm afraid Variscite Three does not share your optimism, Iolite Two-Two-Six,' a cold and harsh female voice fired back, 'Whoever witnessed Erlan's death got away and is now at large.'

'They were most probably students. We have recordings. We just have to find a match, it's merely a matter of time…'

So Fletcher had been infested, after all. I was curious to know who was the person he was talking with.

'He's not alone,' I muttered.

'Yes, I can see her. She's a student! I can't believe it! Looks like a senior.'

'Do you know her?'

Phoebe shook her head. She reached for her cell phone, but suddenly footsteps came awfully close to us and the door swung open. The weight on my chest got so heavy that my mind went blank for a second. I could feel my legs dropping and my body collapsing to the floor. Fletcher was going to find me, lying there, defenseless. He was going to ask what I was doing there. And since he had a recording of my voice right under his nose, ir would not take long for him to figure out whom it belonged to.

I lay there motionless, waiting for the principal to yell at me. One second, two, three – and since nothing had happened, I ventured a look. I could see Fletcher's head. I mean, not his face, his head literally, where the hair was getting scarce. On the other side of the door, a startled Phoebe was staring at me with eyes wide open. From above. It took me a while to figure out that she was actually the one looking up. I was actually lying _on the ceiling_.

Fletcher browsed his files for a few moments and then got out, closing the door behind himself. My heart rebooted and I strongly breathed in, filling my lungs up to the brim. Then I sighed as lightly as I could, while Phoebe silently uttered 'Oh my God!'. I tried to focus my attention on the conversation between Fletcher and the Infested student.

'They must be in there. All other students had finished earlier that day.'

'That still makes quite a lot of them,' the senior student doubtfully retorted.

'Students will not run from the school, it's just a matter of time-'

'Time is a luxury we cannot afford, Iolite Two-Two-Six – so I suggest you get on with your search real quick.'

Fletcher scowled.

'Yes, Thulite Three-Seven-Four.'

My mind was slowly getting clearer and the weight on my chest was starting to lift. Whichever power held me stuck on the ceiling was wearing out. As the senior student was walking away from the door, Phoebe was messing around with her phone's camera, trying to get a clear shot of her through the keyhole. The sound of my own voice echoed through the room, sending shivers through my spine.

'So, what do you think?'

'I don't know. Sounds awfully familiar,' the student pondered, right before the bell rang. 'I must get back to class. Down to work, Iolite Two-Two-Six! Variscite Three will expect results.'

'Of course.'

I could hear the office's door closing, and Fletcher let out a heavy sigh. He played back the recording a few times, possibly in an attempt to recognize whom the voice belonged to. I prayed that his memory wasn't good enough. Then he left the room too. A few moments later, the gravity suddenly went back to normal and I dropped to the floor silently, like a cat leaping from a window.

'Whew, that was close!' Phoebe whispered to me. 'Are you all right?'

'Yeah, don't worry.'

'What was that all about?', she asked while waving her hands to the ceiling.

'I don't know. More of my gravity-bending magic, I guess. It seems to always trigger when I'm going to die in fear.'

'Talk about close timing!'

We carefully opened the closet's door and made sure there was no sound outside and Fletcher was not coming back anytime soon. I checked my cell phone – it was still off and no button was responding.

'My phone's still out of order – I'm sorry, I swear I have no idea what happened...'

'It's okay, I already texted the others. Now we have to do something about that computer. We're not leaving until we get the recording erased.'

She tried the old tricks once again, but the file was definitely password-protected and there was virtually nothing we could do. Phoebe punched the keyboard.

'It's driving me crazy! There must be something – anything at all! And quit messing around with that damned phone, will you!'

She reached out for my hand and grabbed my phone. And as she pulled it away, my arm followed on its own.

'Ouch! Stop that!'

'Just let go!'

'But I _am_!'

Phoebe held my wrist and pulled the phone out of my hand. With a lot of efforts – lots more, in fact, than should be needed to take a small object out of a loose hand.

'Hold on. Don't move,' I said while slowly extending my arm. As my hand came a few inches close to the phone, it jumped right in it.

'Hey!' Phoebe called.

My fingers weren't even clutching on my phone, and yet it felt like it was glued to me, like my whole body was-

'A magnet.'

'What?!'

'It must be my powers again, I'm like- emitting magnetic waves or something. That's why my phone went dead! The field must have fried it…'

'And… Do you think it might fry that too?' Phoebe asked while pointing at Fletcher's computer.

'Well… Here goes nothing.'

I laid my hands on the tower and rubbed it slowly, trying to find the point were I could feel the most powerful attraction. Then I closed my eyes and focused. I tried to gather the most violent thoughts I could. I tried to remember Prince Erlan's death. I tried to remember the feeling of utter evil that Variscite Three conveyed. I tried to think of my hopeless fight against the Saurians, of how they chased me and threw me off a building. And my hands began to heat up, and soon the contact with the cold metal case became unbearable. I took a glance at the computer's screen. It was all blue, with a dozen error messages on it. Phoebe chuckled.

'Piece of cake!'

We met again at the cafeteria during the afternoon break. Phoebe and I had been late, and she told Ms. Lawson I had been sick – fortunately she wasn't too suspicious since it was pretty easy for me to feign sickness given how emotionally shaken the earlier events had left me. I tried my best to avoid any contact with metallic objects in case my magnetic power was still active – that would have been quite hard to explain, especially in front of a teacher who was probably Infested.

'How did it go? We were so worried about you!' Sophie exclaimed.

'I was fine,' Abiona retorted with a shrug. As Sophie looked daggers at her, she added 'What! They got out safely, didn't they? Those girls can take care of themselves, that's all I'm saying!'

We told our friends everything, from the recording to the senior student in Fletcher's office.

'Good thing you got rid of that recording before they could do anything with it! Are you sure there's no way they can get it back?'

'There better not be,' I muttered.

'So a student is possessed by Infested Fletcher's boss? How ironic.'

'Yeah,' Phoebe said as she drew her cell phone out of her pocket. 'I even got a pic of the bitch. Look!'

We all bent forward and took a glance at the photo. And then my heart stopped once again. I stood up and ran.

'What?!' Phoebe called, 'You know her?'

'Ellen Magnett!' Lynn said in a whisper, right before she started chasing me, 'She's her sister!'


	10. Chapter 9

'I'm won't ask you if you're okay…'

'No, you better not.'

'Should I leave you alone?'

'No. Stay.'

Lynn had followed me all the way through the building to the girls' restroom. The bell had already rung, but I wasn't feeling like going back to class.

'We're gonna be in trouble for this.'

'I don't care.'

Lynn nodded with a sad smile.

'Neither do I.'

We sat there silently for a while. My heart was ablaze. Of course I knew there was a chance that our relatives would be captured, but I had no idea it had already happened. Once again, I felt desperately powerless. I couldn't have saved my beloved sister even with the help of Pegasian technology – it was too late before Prince Erlan even came to us.

I knew Lynn was affected too since she was on the swimming team Ellen had been the captain of. Somehow, it was nice to have someone to share my grief with, even if there was no talking. Her mere presence was soothing.

'You know, somehow I feel relieved that Ellen is one of them. She didn't quit swimming after all, a Shadow did it when it took over. It feels nice to know she didn't just abandon us and throw it all away like it seemed she did. Though I can imagine that's the least of your concerns.'

I cracked a faint smile and nodded. Lynn came a bit closer and hugged me.

'We will do everything we can to bring her back. We have Prince Erlan's technology on our side, haven't we? You can already do lots of stuff with it, and I'm sure that soon, we will, too. We'll help you out.'

'Lots of stuff, you've gotta be kidding me! I can lie on the ceiling and stay stuck on the fridge, what kind of super-power is that?!'

'Hey, you've figured as much all by yourself in that little time! With practice, there's no telling what you're gonna be able to do! You can transform into Super Annabel and leap over the buildings, girl! Give yourself some credit!'

'Yeah…'

I knew she was right, of course, but at that time I was too devastated to listen to reason. Still, Lynn's words did cheer me up a bit. Ellen was Infested, but all hope wasn't lost. At least I hadn't leaked any info to her. And the cube had been brought to safety before she could find it.

'You know what, Lynn? I've always admired your talent to see the good in things and people.'

'Really?' she said, beaming at me, 'Well that's nothing of a talent, it just comes naturally…'

'Yes it is! Every time someone feels depressed or angry or bad for whatever reason, you're always there to come up with the nice word they need to hear – and that's precious.'

'Well then, while we're at compliments – I've always admired your self-control.'

'What self-control? I'm trembling like a leaf!'

'After all you've been through today! Most people would be cracking up if they were in your shoes. But you- you never cry, you never get angry.'

'Oh yes I do!'

'I have yet to see that happen! What I'm saying is that you never let your emotions take the best of you, no matter how bad things seem to be.'

'That just comes naturally…'

We stared at each other for a few seconds and burst into laughter. We tried our best to keep our voices down, but we needed to release our tension. When we were finally able to stop, we hugged again.

'I'm really glad we're friends now.'

'Me too.'

'Now that we know Ellen can't be trusted, we'll have to be extra careful with our communications.'

'Yeah, I know – no phone calls, no texting history…'

'Shall we get back?'

'Yeah.'

It was decided that after everything that had happened that day, it would be better for me not to attract anymore attention – so I didn't join the others at Sophie's farm and went straight home. I got in a fight with my mother for missing class twice, and I had so much on my mind that I let it all out. I yelled at her, strode to my room and slammed the door in anger. I lied on my bed and burst into tears. So much for self-control.

About half an hour later, there was a knock, and Ellen's face showed through the door's opening.

'Hey, sis – you all right?'

'Yeah, don't worry about me.'

'Mind if I join?'

'Of course not,' I said with a smile.

My Infested sister was actually the last person I wanted to talk to at that precise moment, but it would be suspicious for me, who had been so eager to reconnect with her, to suddenly avoid her. Thulite Three-Four-Seven had already heard my voice on Fletcher's recording just a few hours earlier, and I was not making her a favor by giving away any more clues. Ellen sat down at the other end of my bed, and sighed.

'Mom can be such a hassle sometimes, can't she?'

'I suppose that's what being a parent is all about.'

'Annabel – always finding people excuses!' Ellen laughed.

'I'd better given how my family sucks!' I fired back.

'Wow, what was that? Wait, was that a joke? Sorry, I missed the cue!'

We laughed together. It was like old times. Having fun, teasing each other – except there was a Shadow in my sister's heart, and it was all fake. Just for her to get my trust back. And for me to pretend I was giving in.

'You know, Annabel, I've been thinking.'

'You have? Like, you can actually do that?'

'Happens every now and then, I'm always surprised myself!'

'You don't say! Must be a scary sight when your brain starts to click!'

'Will you let me speak!' Ellen gently scolded while throwing a pillow at me.

I was actually afraid of her getting serious all of a sudden. _What have you been thinking about, Thulite Three-Four-Seven?_

'You know what I told you the other day?'

'Yeah?'

'You don't remember, do you?' she said with that half-smile only she could do. 'When I said it sucks we're not as close as we used to.'

'Yes, of course I remember.'

_And now I know the reason why, too._

'Well, maybe we should go somewhere together.'

'Like where?' I asked, a little too defiantly.

'Anywhere! Where do you hang out with your friends?'

_You wish I'd tell you, eh._

'I don't really have any friends to hang out with.'

'No? Well, that's a shame. How about you spend some time with mine, then?'

'Yours?'

'Yeah. You come over to a meeting of the Sharing with me. What do you say?'

I stared blankly at Ellen for a few seconds while looking for a smooth way to decline. Then it occurred to me that something was very wrong. My Infested sister was inviting me over to her private club, right on the day I found out about her? It seemed like it was more than a coincidence. She knew I had been late on the night when Prince Erlan crashed in the school courtyard. She knew there was something going on with me, something I was hiding. So she was probably testing me. She wanted to see my reaction. She needed to see whether I was going to reject an offer the naive Annabel couldn't refuse. So I beamed at her.

'Sure, why not?'


	11. Chapter 10

'I'm sure this Sharing stuff of theirs is where they take students to infest them!'

'Right. And you suggest what, exactly? The more suspicious this place gets, the farther I'm staying away from it!'

'I'm with Annabel on that one,' Phoebe declared, 'We can't just sit around and let Shadows take students right under our nose.'

'True, though the question isn't what we _can't_ do, but what we _can_,' Lynn pondered, 'Except for Annabel, we still need to figure out how to use that Instant Genetic Engineering stuff.'

'And even Annabel is still just beginning,' Sophie added. 'No offense, you can do amazing things, really, but what if you just collapse in front of the enemy, like you did the night you visited me?'

'I couldn't care less. I'm going in there and rescue my sister, with or without your help.'

'Woah, woah, woah!' Abiona called with her arms raised. 'As much as I admire your passion, I have to stop you right there – you're saying _what_? You're going to risk everything, including our lives, just because you can't cope with your sister being a damned Shadow?'

'She _isn't_ a Shadow!'

'Whatever! Wake up, girl! What do you think is gonna happen? Saurians and Myriapods are going to topple like dominoes at the sight of a teenage warrior in a sailor suit crying _oh no, we're screwed_? You can't be serious! You're going through something, all right, I get it, we all get that, and I would probably freak out just like you do if it was me – but what good are you doing by going in there and getting yourself killed?'

'Or worse – Infested,' Sophie added with a sorry smile.

I clenched my fist on the table.

'Okay, you're right. This is not my own decision to make. So let's vote it out. Who's in favor of taking action now?'

Phoebe and I raised our arms right away. Two out of five was obviously not enough. Abiona smirked.

'You lose. What did you expect?'

Then Lynn slowly raised her hand, too.

'Oh no, you've gotta be kidding me.'

'Lynn, why? It's too dangerous,' Sophie pleaded.

'Of course it's dangerous. We're not saving mankind by using Pegasian technology to grow fancy clothes and give a nice show. Whatever we do, we're going to risk our lives sooner or later – and if it's not today, it's gonna be tomorrow.'

'I did _not_ sign up for a suicide squad!' Abiona exclaimed while shaking her head.

'And we're not going to suicide, either. I'm in favor of taking action, but only if everything is carefully thought out and we do have a solid backup plan.'

'All right, let's plan everything out,' I acknowledged with a grateful smile.

Abiona sighed.

'I'm thrilled!' she said with an apathetic look, 'Sooo, who's the lucky girl that's going in?'

'I am, obviously,' I said with resolve. 'I might need my powers. And besides, I told Ellen I would be going because I had no friends. It would look suspicious if I brought people over out of the blue.'

'Be my guest.'

'Maybe I should go too,' Sophie shyly said, and we all looked at her in surprise. 'Um, well, turns out I was invited on my side as well. I can watch your back.'

'We will stay nearby in case you need help,' Phoebe affirmed.

'But you can't walk in there and risk getting caught too. We should think of some way to get _them_ out.'

'Ring the fire alarm,' Abiona suggested, 'Though they know the instructions to evacuate, they generally can't help but freak out.'

'So true! I remember two years ago, it was hysteria – some moron wished to pull a stupid prank…' Sophie mused.

Abiona chuckled.

'Yeah, what a good laugh!'

'Laugh? What's there to laugh about?! Wait – it was _you_?'

'What can I say? I was bored. I had no world to save at the time.'

'How do we stay in contact?' Phoebe asked, 'For all I know your cell phone doesn't work anymore, does it?'

'I'll keep in touch through mental speech.'

'Are you sure you can keep it under control?'

'Yeah. Fear triggers my power. And there'll be plenty of it in there – especially if there are any of those monsters we saw the other day.'

Abiona shrugged.

'You'll be fine. Just tell them you're Sailor Mercury.'

'What?'

'A reckless idiot,' she hastily rectified.

I nodded thoughtfully. Sailor Mercury, eh. I liked the sound of that.

Students chatting while enjoying sodas and crackers, playing cards or board games, exchanging phone numbers – this Sharing looked dull enough to be a genuine activity club. If I hadn't heard Ellen speak like an Infested for myself, I wouldn't have been able to find anything suspicious about it at all. In short – the perfect cover.

'Don't be shy, enjoy yourself,' Ellen had told me before leaving me to join some older students.

_Okay, Annabel, time to get boring._

Since I was to ignore Sophie the best I could, I tried to join the students that looked the less comfortable in there, thinking they had the best chance to be actual people rather than Infested. We spent about half an hour getting to know each other, talking about ourselves, family, friends, well boring stuff.

'So, how did you end up coming here today?' I casually asked.

'My best friend's an active member, and he's been going on and on about how cool it was and that I should definitely join – so I wanted to give it a try,' a boy replied.

'Apparently it's open to everyone, but they mainly take newcomers through invitations,' the girl seated next to me explained. 'The real deal happens behind that door, though.'

She pointed at the door in the back of the room. Students were periodically going in and out – each of them would stay no more than about ten minutes before coming back.

'What do you reckon is going on in there?'

'I don't know,' the girl said with a shrug, 'Stuff for full-time members, paid activities, I guess.'

'Nothing illegal, I hope,' the boy jested.

'Don't be silly. We're at school – they wouldn't endorse anything suspicious, now would they?'

_The perfect cover._

As I was watching the door discreetly, I suddenly noticed Ellen going through. My pulse hastened. Save for Sophie, there wasn't anyone left in the room who would recognize me. It was time to act. I left my company, on the pretext of going to the bathroom. I walked over to a crowd of students to blend in and waited a full minute. I breathed in. Then, as soon as the way was clear, I strode to the door and opened it. I quickly glanced back. No one seemed to care about me. So I stepped into the corridor and shut the door behind me.

_Surprisingly easy._

The corridor was a few yards long and led to a down stairway. I was making my way there when my heart jumped – I had just walked past a man who was standing hidden in a corner, just before the stairs.

'Identification?'

I tried my best to suppress the shock and gave the most apathetic gaze I could. A Shadow name, I needed a Shadow name – what were those again?

'Iolite,' I slowly uttered, 'One-Four-Two.'

The fourteenth of February. My birthday. I silently prayed hard they wouldn't make a connection somehow. The man ran his fingers on a touch pad. Then he stared at me for a few moments. Then back at the pad. Something was wrong.

'You already checked in an hour ago. Please stay put-'

_You've gotta be kidding me_, a voice called in mind, _out of a thousand possible combinations, you had to pick the wrong one_. But I was ready to act. I threw my arms in the man's direction while mentally reciting the formula, giving it everything I had in me.

MERCURY POWER, MAKE-UP!

I could practically feel a surge of energy waves shooting from my hands, which went all shiny as my nails turned into small blades of light. I was ready to attack the guard, but he dropped unconscious at my feet instantly. My magnetic powers must have messed up with his brain and knock him out somehow.

I felt powerful again. Despite the danger, I was so thrilled I was able to reconnect with my super self and be in control once more. The feeling was so exhilarating I just wanted to jump around and perform superhuman gymnastic moves, so I took a few moments to focus. I looked down the stairway with all my apprehension gone.

Guys, I'm in.


	12. Chapter 11

Since I could not simply rush down the stairs and blow everything up by showing myself right in the middle of whatever was awaiting there, I probed the walls with the hope I could find some piece of metal to 'grip' magnetically – but to no avail, whether there was no metal or my magnetic powers not responding.

_Gravity, friend, we go way back together, don't we? Help me, please._

I had managed to invert gravity earlier – even though I wasn't even conscious of what I was doing. I just needed to find how to trigger it. I reminded what Erlan had told us. A formula, I needed a formula. But I also knew formulas sometimes weren't enough. So I closed my eyes and tried to picture the scenery upside down. I tried to imagine I was walking on the ceiling, with the stairway above my head. Then I felt it – this strange sensation of remembering something very important. So I tried even harder, and soon it hit me.

_Mercury Gravitic Turnaround!_

I got pulled up and fell onto the ceiling, like the first time. I landed on all four and made sure I was stabilized before trying to move around a bit. I was surprisingly comfortable with the inverted gravity, it actually made no difference – the focus which pulled me up seemed to follow my every step. I leapt forward and slowly crept up to the room downstairs.

Okay, guys. I'm fine, I knocked out a guard, transformed, and now I've found a way to stick to the ceiling so I can go unnoticed. There's a stairway which leads to a room, I'm close to the entrance, I'm almost there, and-

I took a glance inside, and my mental speech cut out all of a sudden. This was a huge place, like some sort of hangar or something – which I had no idea could possibly hide under our school. There was a giant crystal standing in the middle of it, which was pulsating with lights and arcs of electricity. On one side of it, people were standing in line, waiting their turn to enter the crystal. On the other side, cages with people screaming and crying trapped inside. And in-between, a bunch of Saurians and Myriapods were escorting them back and forth to the crystal.

M-m-my God! What the hell is this?!

After discreetly jumping into the room to get a better view, I stared in horror as a boy calmly walked through the surface of the crystal. Then, I could make out a shadowy form flying out of him, and the boy instantly stepped back and fell to his knees, yelling in despair 'No! Please! Let me go!'. A couple of Saurians forced him up and pushed him inside a cage before locking it down.

They're – regenerating! This is what it's all about! The Shadows need to regenerate! They need to leave their host once in a while to regenerate in that giant crystal over there!

A-A-Annabel?

What? Who is it?

I-I-It's Sophie – c-c-can you hear me?

Yes, I can! Are you using mental speech? How did you do that?

I don't really know, but – w-w-we may have a problem right now.

What's going on?

As I was scanning the room for anything unusual – if there was anything usual about all the alien stuff – I suddenly spotted her stepping in line, close to the entrance.

Sophie! What the hell are you doing here?!

It's not my fault, I-I-I was trying to sneak peek through the back door and I was kinda caught in a couple of guys – they pushed me inside and I was forced to play along as an Infested.

You may have fooled them so far, but they'll find out as soon as you get to that crystal!

I know, but… What can I do?

Girls? Now would be a good time for that fire alarm we talked about…

We waited for almost a full minute, which felt like an eternity, but as Sophie was getting dangerously close to the crystal, nothing had happened yet.

Hello?

What's taking them so long?

I don't know but it looks like we're going to have to handle this ourselves.

You can't fight them, there are too many!

You can't be captured, either.

My body craved for action so much anyways, that it was almost a relief for me to leap straight in the middle of the alien creatures.

Hey, monsters! Missed me? Let's fight on equal terms this time!

The quickest to react was a Saurian that stood a few feet away. It dashed into my direction while swinging his armblades like crazy. But it was not fast enough for my enhanced senses, and I watched carefully, like it was in slow motion, and as soon as I saw an opening, I took advantage of it to scratch the creature's face. It stepped back, screaming in pain. Immediately after, a pack of Myriapods rushed forward, hurling their numerous limbs at me, but I dodged the attack by leaping to the ceiling. The creatures gave me a startled look, and stood dumbstruck as I fell down swirling my arms. I hit them hard and knocked them down.

I engaged in a furious ballet with the aliens, jumping, flipping, scratching, kicking in all directions. No matter how many of them came at me, I would drive them all back with incredible ease. My body was strong, my mind was sharp. I could practically jump from one wall to the other. I was like a graceful angel of death dancing among the monstrous aliens, bringing them down one by one.

Then I noticed the lament had changed to a cheer. The prisoners were staring at me with eyes wide open and shouting encouragements at me. I fought my way to the nearest cage, and leaped over a couple of Saurians that were guarding it hesitantly. I reached for the door. A magnetic lock. Bad day for the Shadows.

The door swung open and people started to flow out of the cage. The aliens suddenly lost their interest in me and they started to chase their prisoners while I was busy releasing them. I tried my best to ward the creatures off, but it soon turned out that I couldn't possibly be everywhere. They were unable to beat me and they knew it – but there were dozens of them and I was all alone. And I was growing tired of fighting on all sides. People were getting caught, and they would scream in pain when Saurians would scratch them with their razor claws, or when Myriapods would beat them up relentlessly. I was surrounded with so much suffering and despair, that it was too much for me to handle. I was but a mere teenage girl, and at that time I wasnt used to all the fighting and stuff. I wanted to run away, far from the school, far from the evil crystal and the horrendous Shadows that dwelt in it. I was losing it.

Then, a familiar voice yelled 'Come on, everybody! Lets get together!' I stopped and turned around. Ellen, my beloved sister, stood there, her hair messy and her face red in anger. She was waving forward, rallying students with that resolute expression of hers I'd always admired, the one that makes you feel like anything's possible. At that very moment, I knew this was the real her, and not some alien creature trying to make it seem that way. No ill-minded monster could possibly fake this radiance, this fierce, yet positive aura there was about her. People gathered behind Ellen and formed a human wall. The aliens teamed up as well, blocking the way to the staircase that led back up. The people took a step forward. The monsters growled.

'Don't falter!' Ellen called, 'They may be strong, but we're a lot more than they are!'

Somehow, the fire alarm picked that very moment to start ringing. People dashed forward with mad screams and soon overwhelmed Saurians and Myriapods alike, who were trying their best to push the crowd back.

Let's go back, quickly! Sophie urged.

I was torn apart. There were so many people still held by the creatures, desperately crying for help, and that giant crystal was still standing – but at the same time, a bunch of people was actually breaking free, along with my sister.

We'll come again. We cannot save everybody in a single shot. Run while you still can!

Alright. I'm coming.

I leaped in the air and flew from one Saurian to the other, kicking them in the along the way to help the humans who were struggling with them. Then suddenly, a Myriapod swiftly grasped my leg and threw me off balance. I fell to the floor and rolled. 'Oh no, don't you dare!' Ellen shouted as she jumped onto the creature's back, her arms tightly clutching its throat. The monster screeched and shook her off violently. That was no more time than I needed to gather my strength and strike. My hand went right through the creature's body, dismantling it as a disgusting yellowish fluid squirted out.

I stood there for a moment, shivering, staring in horror at what I'd done. Ellen got up.

'Thank you, whoever you might be!' she shouted at me, though I could barely hear her in the havoc.

I knew I was not to give away any information, but my resolve was wavering. I was so thrilled to see my sister back to normal, I wanted to hug her and tell her how much I loved her and everything. I wanted her to know that I would go to the end of the world to save her. And then I remembered Abiona's words. And I remembered how Lynn had made me swear to stick to the plan. I couldn't let them down. Not now, not so soon. I would tell Ellen everything – just not today. So I turned away and reversed gravity to leave the underground area, sending just a single thought at her.

I'm Sailor Mercury.


	13. Chapter 12

'...and the schools principal, Mr. Fletcher, insisted he would personally see to it that the pranksters be identified and given proper punishment without delay. Parents have already issued formal complaints regarding their childrens injuries, which range from mere bruises to deep cuts...'

So this is how it all ended. The school was just covering up for the previous days incident, portraying it as a pack gone wrong, and the news bulletin was buying it. Or maybe there were Infested among the journalists. And even among officials.

They had made us gather in the courtyard after the incident in the underground area. Most students and teachers had proceeded calmly with the evacuation. So those who were freaking out, crying or thrashing about or speaking about aliens, had been easy to spot and had been immediately sent to the hospital – or at least that was what we were told. By the time the alarm had died, virtually every escapee had been taken into custody and supposedly infested again. They might even have captured other students while they were at it, for all we knew. Fortunately, Sophie and I had kept quiet and managed to blend into the crowd.

'At this rate, you two are going to transfer,' Mom mumbled while watching the news with a disapproving look.

'No way!' Ellen objected, 'I'm not changing schools just because of a couple of stupid freaks!'

Ellen had been home very late. There had been a call from the principals office, saying she had volunteered, along with other members of the Sharing, to help clean up the mess the incident had left at the school. 'Sounds a lot like my Ellen,' Mom had replied. And she was right – except when my sister had come back for dinner, I could tell from her detached look and her faint smirk that Thulite Three-Four-Seven was in control once again. It made me all the more sick that Id seen her put up a fierce fight for her freedom just a few hours earlier. It had all been for nothing.

'Really sucks it had to happen on your first day there, too,' Ellen said to me.

'Yeah.'

'Hope you don't take it for a sign!'

I locked eyes with her. The Shadow was testing me again through small talk. So I decided to play along.

'Nah, don't worry. It's bad luck to be superstitious.'

'Yeah, it is, she chuckled. So are you gonna come again?'

I shrugged.

'I dunno. Seeing as you've given up the swimming team for that Sharing stuff, I guess I was a bit – err – disappointed.'

'Well, it's just a club, what did you expect?'

'I don't know. I guess something more special. You used to be special to the team – now it seems like you're just trying to be popular.'

Ellen's smile vanished. She stared at me for a second, and I knew I'd hit a spot. Then she laughed.

'Well, people change, don't they?'

'Yeah… they sure do.'

'So – I guess it's no use offering you to tag along this afternoon?'

'I'll pass, I've got some plans actually.'

'You do?'

'Yep. That girl from my class, Sophie Bloom… She was at the meeting too, yesterday, and she invited me to her place. She said there would be other girls, too.'

'Wow. You've become awfully easy-going all of a sudden, haven't you?'

'That's right. And it's all thanks to you.'

I beamed at her, enjoying my sweet revenge. I had to watch my contacts with the girls, but on the other hand she's provided me with the perfect excuse to spend time with them. Thulite Three-Four-Seven forced Ellen's best smile on her face to keep pretending she was happy for me. It was all a game, but at least I had the small satisfaction of winning this round.

'Hey sis, you know you can count on me, don't you?' Ellen casually asked.

'I know. And you can count on me, too.'

I quickly ate up my cereal and stood up, getting ready to leave.

'Oh, by the way, Ellen,' Mom suddenly said, 'this came by mail this morning. It's for you.'

My sister frowned and opened the envelope. As she read the note that was inside, her face was suddenly distorted with horror, with a hint of fear within. I turned away and smiled as I remembered what I had written on it.

_You're not alone anymore._

– _Sailor Mercury_


End file.
